Tax Delinquents: Land bank gives Syracuse cover to go after them

Michelle Gabel/The Post-Standard BRIDGET SOLOMON lives in a rental property on Westmoreland Street owned by Brian Murphy. Murphy and his father, Harry, owed the city more than $1 million in back taxes as of last week.

The formation of a “land bank” for Syracuse and Onondaga County has given the city a new hammer to use against property owners who are delinquent on their taxes.

For years, the city has been reluctant to foreclose on tax-delinquent properties unless a buyer was waiting in the wings. That made a certain amount of sense, since the last thing Syracuse needs on its hands is more abandoned and unkempt houses blighting its neighborhoods.

But the tradeoff was almost as unpalatable for this cash-strapped city: The total bill for unpaid property taxes is about $60 million — a number that grows to $92 million when you add interest and taxes owed to Onondaga County, staff writer Tim Knauss reported last week. Some 3,900 city properties — 9 percent of the total — are at least two years behind on their taxes.

Enter the Greater Syracuse Property Development Corp., a nonprofit “land bank” created under state law last year to acquire tax-delinquent properties and sell them to responsible developers. Now, the land bank can be the buyer waiting in the wings, freeing the city to clamp down on tax delinquents.

Mayor Stephanie Miner’s newfound readiness to seize properties should be a powerful incentive to property owners either to pay up or move on. Indeed, City Hall estimates it could collect as much as $11 million over the next eight years as tax scofflaws pay their bills to avoid seizure.

The city’s welcome moves only address part of the problem.

The most egregious property tax scofflaws in the city, Knauss reported, are Harry Murphy and his son Brian. As of last week, the Murphys owed more than $1 million in taxes and interest on 84 properties. Harry Murphy blames tenants who don’t pay their rent. But while crying poor to the city, he’s collecting more than $400,000 a year in public money from Onondaga County in rent payments for tenants on welfare. Having an outstanding tax bill isn’t a lawful reason for the county’s Department of Social Services to deny the payments.

Not yet, anyway.

State Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, plans to propose a rule change that would disqualify a landlord from receiving welfare payments if he or she is delinquent on property taxes. At first blush, that sounds like a good idea.

The Democratic mayor and the Republican state senator may not see eye to eye on many things, but on the issue of improving city neighborhoods and protecting city and county taxpayers, they are on the side of right.